Damakant Jayshi
The president of the Wausau School Board on Monday questioned billions of dollars going into education in the state after a senior school district official said the governor’s plan would “offset the fiscal cliff” they would be facing once federal pandemic relief funds go away.
Speaking about Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ announcement of an education budget plan of nearly $2 billion for K-12 schools during an annual meeting on budget presentation on Monday, President James Bouche said “that’s a lot of money going into education, which is good.”
But he also questioned the impact of “billions of dollars for the taxpayer for the state of Wisconsin…if every school district is going to get that kind of money.” The state has 421 school districts.
Bouche added that the proposed additional amount allocated per pupil – $350 in 2022-23 and $650 the following year – is high but is yet a hypothetical scenario. “I just put out there because I wonder about it,” the board president added.
Evers’ proposal for the 2023-25 budget plans to use the state’s $5 billion budget surplus to fund school meals, mental health programs and per pupil spending and to ease statewide staffing shortage in schools.
Last year, the Republican-controlled legislature made drastic cuts to the governor’s spending plan for education, prompting swift criticism from some school leaders. The Republicans defended those reductions by pointing to the federal money, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, available in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the federal Department of Education warned that Wisconsin could lose billions in federal funding, the legislature put some additional state funding into education. However, that money “could only be used by local school districts to fund a property tax cut, because the legislature didn’t increase revenue limits that hold down spending by local districts.”
The Wisconsin Examiner said the governor’s new plan calls for raising those revenue limits, authorizing local school districts to spend an additional $350 per pupil in 2022-23 and an additional $650 per pupil in 2023-24, and provides $800 million in state funds so there is no need to raise property taxes.
Wausau School District’s Chief Finance & Business Services Officer Bob Tess referred to those per pupil increases in his budget presentation on Monday. He pointed to the challenges faced by school districts in the absence of increase in revenue limit. He added there has been zero increase in the revenue limit for two years in a row.
Referring to the current biennial budget, Tess said it was the “toughest state budget that we have ever had to deal with,” adding it “ironically” came at the same time as federal ESSER money.
According to Tess, the federal funds gave the state lawmakers “a sense of thinking that that’s OK,” allowing school districts to spend their ESSER money while ensuring the legislature would not have to provide for revenue limit increases.
“To put it into perspective, and I am only doing for that reason – I certainly don’t want this to be political – but Gov. Evers along with the DPI (Department of Public Instruction) is proposing pretty large numbers,” the district official said. “And those were calculated to offset the fiscal cliff that we are facing by the ESSER money going away.”
Bouche, who was supported by the Republican Party of Marathon County for the Wausau School Board elections in April this year, questioned the Evers-DPI funding after Tess spoke about the state’s budget and the Evers plan, wondering the impact the funding would have on taxpayers.
Coming nine weeks before the mid-term election, Evers’ plans was criticized by state Republicans as a political move. Evers faces Republican Tim Michels in the Nov. 8 election. Michels termed the plan “more money and more bureaucracy.” A key part of Michels’ education platform is expanding private school vouchers to all students statewide, which Evers opposes.
